Everton can only finish eighth, says John Heitinga

For all those concerned about the polarisation of the Premier League,
Everton’s John Heitinga has sent out a chilling message that the gap between
his own club and free-spending Manchester City is becoming almost impossible
to bridge.

While Everton, who entertain Stoke at Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon, see their finances stretched to the limit, City’s vast reserves of Abu Dhabi wealth have already propelled them out of sight this season.

“This year we have got just one point against the big teams,” Heitinga said. “From that point of view, we need to be realistic. Over the last couple of years City have spent a ridiculous amount of money. We don’t have it, so we can’t put the quality injection in our squad.”

Heitinga arrived from Atlético Madrid with ambitions of gatecrashing the English game’s top table. That was 2008; three years on, the Dutchman has watched Sergio Agüero, his former team-mate at Atlético, join the vanguard of the City revolution, while Everton have slipped ever further adrift. In a candid interview at the club’s Finch Farm training ground, he indicated that the best supporters could hope for in this campaign was an eighth-place finish.

“We want to reach as high as possible — I hope, around the eighth position,” the centre-back said. “If our goal is eighth and we’re there, then we’ll go for Europe. But you need to be realistic, and it won’t be easy to do that.”

Everton’s turbulent start to the season has been overshadowed by protests against chairman Bill Kenwright and his board of directors, and Heitinga admitted: “Due to the finance, we don’t have a lot of money to spend on new players. But what I can tell the fans is that everybody is working for the club. Everybody with an Evertonian heart is doing everything to keep the team on the level we are now. We can improve in the future.”

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There are anxieties at Everton that Heitinga, building a promising rapport with Phil Jagielka at centre-half, could soon be prised away by a higher bidder. Already Roma, seeking a replacement for Nicolas Burdisso, are believed to be interested in his brand of on-the-edge aggression. But the 28 year-old scotched any suggestion of a move, stressing: “To play for Everton, I’m really happy. It’s a warm club, almost like a family club.

“I still like English football and the Premier League. It’s still the best league in the world. It’s not always the best football, but the atmosphere in the stadium and the spirit from the players on the pitch is unbelievable.”

Few sides exhibit quite such spirit as Stoke City, whom Heitinga confronts on Sunday. Given he is still known mainly as one of only five players to have been sent off in a World Cup final – as he was against Spain in Johannesburg last summer – there is a theory that he should feel quite at home in the face of Stoke’s uncompromising defending.

“I don’t think I’m a dirty player,” he said. “I have a few yellow cards in my career, not a lot of reds, but it’s how you play. To play against these teams you need to try to ‘out-football’ them, to keep the ball on the floor.”